Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

White supremacy is terrorism.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Republicans in disarray!

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

… among the most cringeworthy communications in the history of the alphabet!

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Women’s History Month

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Women’s History Month

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  1. 1.

    Baud

    Biden needs to be seen more.

    People were rightly upset that the media turned to John Bolton for his opinion on Ukraine, but apparently he said Putin was counting on Trump would pull out of NATO in his second term. That’s a good message.

    The Bill Barr rehabilitation tour is disgusting.

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    Boy, will I be relieved when y’all change the clocks come to 13th. Could never get the hang of the difference from the mainland when the it’s not on DST.

    More than a hundred orange 3D printed statues

    Reclaiming the color orange?

    Is good.

    ;)

  3. 3.

    artem1s

    The Bill Barr rehabilitation tour is disgusting.

    there will be no end to them. they haven’t finished their rehab tours from W’s administration yet.

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Biden himself is eager to get out more, according to his wrap-up comments in the HCR interview I posted yesterday. Makes sense — he’s always been a rope-line gladhander, so I’m sure the pandemic has been especially hard on him.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    Couple of things plucked from the potpourri.

    1) Note for Wordlers.

    Not having a finger (nor any other body part) on the pulse of contemporary music, yours truly would go down in flames faster than the Hindenburg. Your mileage may vary.

    2) Habit is to delete items like this from the ever rotating miscellaneous file once shared here. I may have forgotten to do so in this case so if this one is repetitious, apologies.

    Odd duck of a TV series that if given the chance grows on you found on Hulu, Please Like Me. Forced, but in a good way.

    Subtitles recommended, the Aussie accents run thick as week old gravy.

  6. 6.

    JAFD

    WQXR will be playing only classical music by women composers on Tuesday – International Women’s Day – midnight to midnight, EST – wqxr.org via web

  8. 8.

    narya

    @Betty Cracker: Yeah, Charlie Pierce had a piece on that the other day.

    In Health Update News, I continue to be amazed. I’m still a little achey and sore–the bruises are amazing!–but the pain stays constant at a very very low, tolerable level. I’ve tapered the meds some (no acetaminophen and reduced the ibuprofen dosage), because the full dosage doesn’t seem to do any better than the reduced dosage. Took two walks yesterday, for a total of 2.5 miles or so, and will do that today, too. Going to begin some gentle weights–while lying down, arms only, under the prescribed limit–and explore some very gentle stretches. Going back to work-from-home Monday; I’d take more time except my inbox is just piling up and I have a new person starting in a week. It’s hard to believe, tbh, but I’ll take it–slowly and carefully.

  9. 9.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax:

    Boy, will I be relieved when y’all change the clocks come to 13th. Could never get the hang of the difference from the mainland when the it’s not on DST. 

    You’re just happy we’re losing an hour, you jerk. ?

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    @narya: That’s all wonderful news!

    Please don’t do the weights, though.  My sister’s friend breezed through her knee replacement, ended up doing too much too early and the result was not good.

    Take the win and take the walks!

  11. 11.

    germy

    Since we only have antenna TV, we don’t see all the fancy shows you youngsters watch.  But we’ve been enjoying Abbott Elementary.  It’s one of the best new shows we’ve seen.

    https://abc.com/shows/abbott-elementary

    Quinta Brunson is the star and the creator of the show.  She’s an exceptionally talented and funny young woman.  The rest of the cast is excellent.

    I can’t recommend this show enough.

  15. 15.

    narya

    @germy: I got a heads-up about this because of her association w/ Mike Schur (The Good Place, which I adore, and Parks & Rec, which I never watched, The Office, etc.); I missed the first ep, watched the second ep and immediately set up to record ’em all. I haven’t gotten back to it yet, but am completely looking forward to it.

  17. 17.

    germy

    @narya:

    The actor who starred in Everybody Hates Chris plays a teacher.  His glances at the camera (it’s a mockumentary) are priceless. Sheryl Lee Ralph plays a teacher and she was in the original production of Dreamgirls back in the day.

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato

    Maddow airing at 3, O’Donnell at 4, nap at 5 is the way it ought to be. For the other non-DST months it feels as if the universe is off kilter.

    Constantly have to remind myself I well might be interrupting Mom’s dinner when calling her November through March, also too.

    ;)

  22. 22.

    narya

    @WaterGirl: Yeah, I do hear that–when I say “weights” I mean 2-3 pounds, and, as noted, arms only and while horizontal. NO inclination to push the limits with things like groceries or laundry! I admit it’s hard, though–I’m used to just doing whatever I want, and that is just not the way to go about this. The persistent achey-ness is a very salient reminder to calm TF down and take it slowly. Decades of yoga and pilates are really helpful–finding the limits, and respecting them, knowing how to do slow and controlled movement, etc. And caution, above all, because the result of NOT being cautious is . . . not good.

  25. 25.

    germy

    @WaterGirl:

    All the shows are available streaming in the ABC website I linked to

    The most recent one is usually locked, but the others are available.  Then the locked one is unlocked after a few days.  No subscription necessary, thankfully.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @narya: I am 4 months post surgery and the damn shoulder is still painful. I do my exercises every other day so it has time to recover in between.

  28. 28.

    opiejeanne

    @NotMax: My BIL lived for years in Alasaka and could never remember that he was an hour behind California, and would call at midnight. Back then we both had jobs that required us to be up at the butt-crack of dawn, but our annoyance never set the time difference in his head. I think he was drunk when he called, which was most of the time he lived in Nome.

    And then there was cousin Bob, Dave’s 2nd cousin who lived in Arkansas, who would get up with the chickens and give us a call at 5am to talk about his mom’s money. He was just a stupid, selfish, asshole.

  29. 29.

    germy

    @opiejeanne:  cousin Bob, Dave’s 2nd cousin who lived in Arkansas, who would get up with the chickens and give us a call at 5am to talk about his mom’s money.

    I assume it wasn’t chicken feed, if he was so hyped up about it.

  30. 30.

    narya

    @mrmoshpotato: I listened to the podcast, and it was sooooo much fun! Marc Evan Jackson (Shaun) hosts it, and they interview so many folks, including a ton of behind-the-scenes folks; I highly recommend it. I ended up buying the DVDs, because this show has had an embarrassingly profound effect on me. (I was a philosophy major, so . . . let’s just say I knew a LOT of what Chidi was talking about.)

  33. 33.

    Spanky

    Over at the WaPo, one opinion piece by George Fucking Will is the beginning of the “Trump wasn’t so bad” campaign:

    Opinion: Donald Trump looks increasingly like a stray orange hair to be flicked off the nation’s sleeve

    While Dana Milbank isn’t having any of Barr’s nonsense:

    In real time, Barr jettisoned Justice Department norms and authorized the department to open election-fraud investigations before the tallies were certified. Barr, who had falsely asserted that mail-in voting was vulnerable to counterfeit foreign ballots, did allow at one point that the Justice Department hadn’t found enough fraud to change the election outcome — “to date.” But his sycophantic departure letter (“you built the strongest and most resilient economy in American history”) said “these allegations will continue to be pursued.”

    Had Barr spoken out publicly about Trump’s “clown show,” perhaps he could have punctured the “big lie” before it resulted in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Barr didn’t even speak out during Trump’s impeachment, instead offering his self-serving view 14 months later while hawking his book — after Trump managed to get the bulk of the Republican electorate to accept the “big lie” as an article of faith.

    Barr is just the latest in the parade of former Trump officials to wash their hands of him long after their public condemnation would have done any good: John Bolton, John F. Kelly, Rex Tillerson, Jim Mattis, Reince Priebus, Nikki Haley, Gary Cohn, Omarosa Manigault Newman, Michael Cohen, Anthony Scaramucci, H.R. McMaster and many more.

    Et Cetera.

  34. 34.

    opiejeanne

    @narya: Oh good. I’m glad you’re on the mend. I had very minor surgery on a finger in 2020, and that took months to stop heal.

  36. 36.

    opiejeanne

    @germy: It was more money than he could comprehend, and the shit-weasel asked my husband to manage his inheritance (after the stepson of her second husband had skimmed off half of it), then would call us up to ask for a big chunk of it because he wanted to buy Christmas presents or some other lie. He would drive down to Mississippi to that town that used to have raw sewage running down the middle of the road on the black side of town until the city got a casino, and he’d blow it all gambling and drinking. We didn’t realize that was what he was doing until a bit later, and we finally turned the account over to a conservator at his bank, with the help of his lawyers, and he hoodwinked her too.

    I have so many Bobby stories I could fill a book, but I can feel my blood pressure rising just typing this, because of the really terrible thing he did before the lawyers stepped in to protect what little he had left.

  37. 37.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly: Unfortunately they didn’t give me any “exercises.” Just “walk, a little more each day, and don’t lift more than 10 pounds for 8 weeks.” And, reading a lot of the instructions (okay, ALL of the instructions), it’s clear that they’re written for people who likely aren’t in great shape to begin and who aren’t inclined to move much.

    I hope that your shoulder will become less painful and move better; doing the exercises is such a good thing. It’s also become clear to me that many people DON’T do their exercises after interventions, and then wonder why they can’t move. But damn–4 months. Good for you for keeping at it.

  39. 39.

    mrmoshpotato

    @narya: I totally forgot about the podcast.  I don’t know if I listened to all of the episodes.  I should revisit that too.

    P.S. Wasp nostrils.

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    What in the wide world of fuck?

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @opiejeanne: In addition to my regular insomnia, it likes to wake me up at night.

    @narya: It was pretty fucked up. The doc says I have another 2 months before I am back to “normal”. Problem is normal wasn’t all the much to begin with. Serves me right for making it to 63 after living like I’d never get past 40.

  46. 46.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Spanky:

    Over at the WaPo, one opinion piece by George Fucking Will is the beginning of the “Trump wasn’t so bad” campaign: 

    I see Georgey boy there isn’t aware that the Republican party is full of Republicans. (h/t driftglass)

    And rusty pitchforks for Barr.  When Confederate trash Jeff Sessions’ shred of morality (or was it fear of prison?) is too much for your fat, orange, fascist ass…

  47. 47.

    opiejeanne

    For the past week I’ve had this pain on the right side of my face, starting at my cheekbone and running up into my scalp where it feels like someone is pulling my hair. The skin is tender to the touch, but it feels like it goes to the bone, as if I’d slammed my cheekbone into something really hard.

    The first attempt at a diagnosis sent me home with gabapentin for nerve pain; the PA who saw me really wanted it to be shingles, but decided it wasn’t.

    Yesterday I saw an actual MD who told me it was temporal arteritis, which I misheard and hilariously asked if I now had arthritis in my face. Fancy name for inflamed artery occurring in women over 50 with Nordic ancestry, quietly cursing my Danish Viking ancestors. She prescribed Prednisone for the next 5 days and I’m waiting to see if it will ease the pain, can’t tell yet. It tends to keep you awake and really spike your blood sugar, to which I can attest after one dose, but if it makes it stop hurting I’ll be incredibly grateful.

  48. 48.

    sdhays

    @Betty Cracker: Isn’t that what this whole, umm war, was about? Isn’t that what Vova Putin told us…last week

    ETA: I’m not sure we can trust the things that Mr. Putin says!

  52. 52.

    narya

    @zhena gogolia: Hysterectomy. I’ve had abnormal paps for decades, and my uterine artery embolization resulted in a calcified fibroid that prevented all kinds of less-invasive exams to see whether anything more was wrong. I decided that it wasn’t going to suddenly get better, so I was, take it all out. The fibroid was so large and hard (almost the size of a baseball) they had to break it up with scissors to remove the whole thing.

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    Not in the same class when it comes to infirmity but am only now recovered from the Goddess of Leg Cramps working double overtime last weekend.

    Fortunately only in one leg.

  56. 56.

    opiejeanne

    @narya: Oh! And here I thought it was a knee replacement.

    I wish you a recovery like mine when I was 33. It was laparoscopic surgery, so I didn’t have a big wound to heal, but I spent an extra week in the hospital because I hemorrhaged after I left the recovery area and needed more surgery to get that stopped.

  57. 57.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah . . . watching my (87- and 91-year-old) parents, I’ve decided the very best thing I can do for my 63-year-old self is get into, and keep in, the best shape I possibly can. I mean, I’m not doing CrossFit any time soon, or anything that crazed, but strength, cardio, & flexibility exercise will get me a long way.

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: The Goddess of Leg Cramps paid me a visit Thursday night/Friday Morn. I got maybe 2 hrs of sleep, Then left the house at 5;30 AM to p/u the granddaughters at 7;30. 10 mins after picking them up the older of the 2 had projectile vomiting (she gets motion sickness real easily but we were on straight roads in Valley Park). I’ve had fun before but that weren’t it. I did get a short nap in from 10:30 to 11:30.

  59. 59.

    narya

    @opiejeanne: Mine was laparoscopic AND robotic-assisted! One of the pics the doc sent has some of the instruments in view (and it turns out that a good friend’s husband worked on the camera, years ago). They didn’t pull it out through the abdomen, though, which is why they had to break up the fibroid w/ scissors.

    ETA: hope that face pain goes away FAST.

  61. 61.

    opiejeanne

    @Spanky: I’ve had a few MDs who tried to force things to fit into their prejudged special illness of the week.

    I had this before but much milder, about 6 weeks ago, accompanied by what was the mildest cold I’ve ever had, and an earache and swollen glands. The PA then prescribed a cause of antibiotics, but didn’t test for Covid. The follow-up with another PA tested for Covid and it was negative.

  62. 62.

    narya

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Yeah, I still think the fact that dad was a sheet metal worker saved his life–he had a quad bypass, but I suspect there was enough extra circulation that he didn’t just tip over. But he’s not kept moving in the pandemic, and it shows. Mom is a fking medical miracle (seven fused vertebrae; 3 c-sections; knee replacement; kidney transplant . . . and that’s just the major stuff), but she keeps moving, and it shows.

  63. 63.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @narya: Speaking as a former union carpenter who engaged in “crossfit” almost everyday for 35 years, I got only one thing to say: “Don’t.”

    Ride a bike. Take long leisurely walks. Go swimming. Just don’t do any of that high impact stuff. The toll it takes adds up and eventually the piper has to be paid.

    And speaking of exercise, I have to stop whining and go move a cord of cordwood.

  64. 64.

    opiejeanne

    @narya: Thanks.

    Second dose after breakfast, which should be soon since it’s already 8am here, but my DH is still asleep so it may be later.

  65. 65.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly: I hear that. I do run, but I am slow, which is fine with me, and it has had huge benefits for me. I don’t do long distances, and I did start interleaving long walks over the past year–and managed more than 1400 miles combined in 2021–and that has been good. More total miles, but no increase in impact. I do need to do more strength training, though.

  70. 70.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @JAFD: I hope / assume they’ll be doing my favorite German Romantic, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, the smarter older sister of Felix Mendelssohn.

    Due to family pressure, she didn’t compose or perform publicly, but wrote 400+ brilliant pieces for mostly private performance in the salons she hosted at home. At the age of 40 she decided to ignore the family and go public, and started collecting some of her work together for publication, but she died of a stroke after only getting a couple of collections together.

    She was forgotten from 1847 until around the 1980s-90s with the reunification of Germany. Most of her stuff has been published, but I’ve noticed that performers almost always perform or record only the very few pieces which were given titles, which is a shame.

    Yeah, I’m a fanboy.

  71. 71.

    MattF

    @Spanky: In that piece Will calls Trump ‘the suppurating wound on American life’, so, not so favorable. FWIW, Will has always despised Trump, polysyllabically.

  72. 72.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @mrmoshpotato: Oh yeah. We were watching that, got somewhere into season 3 and then it kind of fell off our radar. Need to finish it.

    I’ve been checking baking shows today. We tried out the GBBO during 2020 lockdown to see what the fuss was all about, immediately got addicted (I don’t know why, neither of us has the slightest desire to make or eat anything we’ve seen on the show), and then when we ran out of those, we searched out shows in other countries.

    Ireland had one that didn’t last long. Money I think, it was a scaled back version.

    Canada has one, and they are going to film the new series this summer.

    Australia had one, it went on hiatus after 2019, but it’s back and apparently halfway through the season! So yay, we have new baking shows to watch!

    We are also totally charmed by Michelle Obama’s food show for kids, “Waffles and Mochi”, and excited that the second season is dropping in mid March. Yes, I know that the target demographic is probably about 5 years old, and we’re somewhat older than that. Sue me.

  74. 74.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin said that if Ukraine “continues to behave in the same way,” that will “bring into question the future of its statehood,” during a meeting broadcast on TV.

    I have avoided many of the Ukraine related threads, because it is sad and painful. But it seems that Putin is determined to have his way with that country, even if it hurts Russia and his oligarch buddies.

    I guess we will see if anything can change Putin’s mind.

  75. 75.

    Calouste

    @Betty Cracker: Putin is now just thrashing about like a fish on dry land. He desperately needs something now to convince his generals to go along if he orders them to use nukes. (Because if they refuse his orders, that will trigger a coup). But the inherent problem with a kleptocracy is that everyone is looking out for themselves first, and there will still be jobs for Russian generals when Putin has gone, and they will still have family and friends, something that is rather less guaranteed when they trigger a nuclear war.

  76. 76.

    Brachiator

    @MattF:

    In that piece Will calls Trump ‘the suppurating wound on American life’, so, not so favorable. FWIW, Will has always despised Trump, polysyllabically.

    I have not read George Will in a while. In some past interviews, he has professed a belief that the country could get over Trump, etc. But I don’t know that he has ever admitted the threat that Trump poses to democracy or acknowledged GOP complicity in undermining the nation.

  77. 77.

    Tony Jay

    Author and occasional Guardian investigative journalist (not so much a dying breed as a species deliberately driven to extinction over here by deliberate habitat shrinkage and heavily armed libel lawyers) Carole Cadwalladr has been doing sterling work over the last few years stripping away the bullshit and laying out in some detail the pernicious collusion between Putin’s Russia and Britain’s rotten right-wing Establishment over Brexit. She’s currently being sued by unsavoury ‘businessman’ and depilated baboon testicle Aaron ‘Friend of Farage’ Banks for pointing out that his open treason in service to Russian interests makes him look like a bit of a Russian asset , which he does, because he is.

    Now, Flobalob Johnson’s recent decision to bestow a knighthood on Gavin Williamson MP, the serial-failure Minister whose stints at Defence and Education both ended with him sacked and about as popular as a tarantula loose in an amputee ward, has drawn considerable scorn and a chorus of voluble questions. I mean, it’s not surprising that Johnson likes throwing honours at completely unqualified people, but Williamson is neither the newspaper owning son of a KGB officer or a blatantly corrupt major donor to Johnson’s defence fund the Tory Party, and if anything his stints as Cameron’s chief toady and May’s vote-wrangler would put him as firmly in the anti-Flobby camp as his 2016 vow to ensure Johnson didn’t succeed the soft-faced pig-molester as Prime Minister. He’s not even in the Cabinet now and doesn’t appear to have any kind of wider popularity or important constituency. Why make him a ‘Sir’?

    Cadwalladr may have shone some light on that. Basically, the Mueller Investigation touched on the British leg of the Putin/Brexit/Trump ‘Tripod of Treason’ and had a lot of concerns about the connections between then Foreign Secretary Johnson, Russian agents like Joseph Mifsud, and the aforementioned Brexit-backer Aaron Banks. Williamson, as Defence Secretary, leaked information about this to the odious Leave campaign head Richard Tice, who in turn leaked it to right-wing journalist and frequent BBC pundit Isabel Oakeshott. Oakeshott went back over e-mails she already had from Banks and was, ahem, ‘astonished to discover’ that they left no doubt that Banks was so deep in Putin’s pocket he was permanently bonded to a half-sucked lozenge.

    Oakeshott wrote up her findings and took them to the sickly green corpse-city of Minas Morgul Murdoch’s Times where they got as far as indemnifying her against any legal action for publishing Banks’ e-mails before… the story went away. May made some noises about Russian interference, Johnson mumbled denials in cod-Latin, the Media went back to destroying the Opposition. Silence reigned.

    Then Russia invaded Ukraine, the topic of the Londongrad Laundromat and its controlling stake in the Conservative Party hit the front pages, and here we are.

    Now, I’m about as far from being an expert in all this as you can get, but the story Cadwalladr details in her tweet makes me wonder if the recently ennobled Sir Gavin Williamson knew a hell of a lot more about Flobalob’s close links to Putin’s pet oligarchs and the wider Association of Extremely Influential Scumbags than he ever leaked out to Tice, and if Flobby is shitting bricks that Williamson (who really seems to like a good leak) might be tempted to slip the knife in by releasing some pertinent Russian names to Johnson’s rivals in the Party.

    I thought this might be of interest here because Cadwalladr mentions that a lot of this explosive evidence was communicated to the House Intelligence Committee and seen by the esteemed Adam Schiff. Anyone tempted to ask his opinion on Russian involvement in the Brexit campaign (and links to the politicians who headlined it) next time you have him over for a chat?

  78. 78.

    StringOnAStick

    @narya:  Having had the same surgery but at age 47, it wasn’t as painful as I expected but the real risk is doing too much too soon. The doctor even said “you’ll feel pretty good at 6 weeks, over do it, and knock yourself back 4 weeks in your recovery”. I stupidly did exactly that and proved him right, so take it slow and you’ll recover faster in the long run. Hang on there, it gets much better!

  79. 79.

    StringOnAStick

    @narya: Very wise words.  I’m still doing the sports I did in my 30’s, not as fast or as aggressively, but the trick to it is I never stopped doing them.  At 64 I still long lots of miles backcountry skiing, mountain biking, hiking, yoga and rock climbing.  In my former job in dentistry, I would know my hygiene patients ages and the difference in aging between who was active and who wasn’t was often amazing.

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